US Prosecutor: Bernie Madoff Was In An Office 'Love Triangle'

A pair
of boxer shorts belonging to Bernard Madoff are displayed by an
auctioneer during a media preview of the U.S. Marshals Service
'Madoff II Auction' in the Brooklyn borough of New York, November
10, 2010.REUTERS/Jessica
Rinaldi

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bernard Madoff was in a "love triangle"
involving one of five former employees who are about to go on
trial for helping him run his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme,
prosecutors said.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March 2009 to running a fraud of up to
$65 billion at his investment firm and is serving a 150-year
prison sentence.

While Madoff said he acted alone, prosecutors have since charged
13 individuals in connection with the fraud. Five of them - two
women and three men - are set to go on trial in federal court in
New York on October 7.

In a filing with the court on Thursday, prosecutors said the
married Madoff was involved with one of the five but did not give
a name.

All but one of the defendants were at one time involved in
relationships with each other, and one had a relationship with
Madoff, the prosecutors said.

"For example, one of the defendants was in a love triangle with
Bernard Madoff himself," prosecutors said.

In the filing, the office of Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for
Manhattan, said prosecutors had gathered "inflammatory" evidence
of romantic and sexual relationships between employees and
customers, including between defendants and witnesses in the
upcoming trial.

If the judge finds evidence of past relationships are admissible,
defendants and witnesses should be prepared for details to be
elicited during the government's case, the motion said.

A former lawyer for Madoff declined to comment.

Eric Breslin, a lawyer for former investment advisory employee
Joann Crupi, said he didn't know which defendant was in the
purported "love triangle."

"It's just kind of strange," Breslin said of the filing.

Besides Crupi, the defendants include former operations manager
Daniel Bonventre, former investment advisory employee Annette
Bongiorno, and former computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and
George Perez.

Lawyers for the other defendants either did not respond to
requests for comment or declined to comment. A spokeswoman for
Bharara did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a hearing on Friday, Judge Laura Taylor Swain denied a request
by lawyers for the five former employees to delay the trial for
two months because of a new indictment filed by prosecutors last
week.

The case is USA v. O'Hara et al, U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New York, No. 10-0228.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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